Sequoia Star Trails

CWSkopec

Been awhile since I posted a pic (way too many other projects on my plate lately), but I re-encountered this one and can't quite convince myself that I don't like it! :rofl

Taken this summer, from my campsite at Sequoia National Park:



So far, it's the best star trails shot I've managed but I did figure out a few things to do better next time. This "one" was taken over about 2.5 hours. The trees are lit by our campfire on a separate exposure (I think around 3 minutes or so). Since I don't have one of them there fancy intervalometers I had to make do with a series of 30 second shots for the stars since that's the max my XTi can be set for before going into "Bulb." I could have sat there and hit the remote shutter every 3 minutes, but opted to sit by the fire and enjoy the warmth with my girlfriend.

Next time, I need to remember not to focus to infinity before I take the foreground exposure. I really wish those trees where a little crisper. Any other thoughts on how I can improve next time would be greatly appreciated! :thumb

schmoo

This is crazy, Chris, but in a good way! It's always good to have a take-home lesson for improving a shot afterwards but I think that this came out really darned well.

I've been thinking about camping somewhere in Sequoia soon. What area were you in and how much advanced planning did it take?

kdog

Sweet shot, Chris! Love the way the orange trees play off the dark skies. I seem to recall that shooting at F4 or F4.5 with a wide enough lens, and focusing on the foreground will give you enough DOF to keep the stars in pretty good focus and still keep the foreground sharp. Of course, you may be peeing into the wind anyway using trees for your foreground since they'll move in the breeze. The intervalometers are relatively inexpensive and a great gadget to have. All in a all, a very nice shot.

-joel

CWSkopec

schmoo wrote:

This is crazy, Chris, but in a good way! It's always good to have a take-home lesson for improving a shot afterwards but I think that this came out really darned well.

I've been thinking about camping somewhere in Sequoia soon. What area were you in and how much advanced planning did it take?

Thanks, Schmoo!

This trip was part of my birthday present from my wonderful girlfriend so I wasn't involved in too much planning. We stayed in the Dorst Creek campground in the northern region of the park. It's a really nice campground, but since it's near the park boundaries, required a bit of driving back to the middle of the park for some of the attractions. I think Kristen booked the campsite about 3 weeks ahead of time and by then it was the last campground with spots. That was mid-July and the peak of their tourist season so things filled up a bit quicker then they would at other times of the year.

If you go, bring your "wildlife" lens. There's plenty of critters to see! Our campsite was visited a number of times by the local deer community. We ran into another group of deer as well as a bear up a Crescent Meadow (a must see and according to John Muir, "The Gem of the Sierras!")

Hope that helps, feel free to ask for more details, I'll answer if I can!

CWSkopec

kdog wrote:

Sweet shot, Chris! Love the way the orange trees play off the dark skies. I seem to recall that shooting at F4 or F4.5 with a wide enough lens, and focusing on the foreground will give you enough DOF to keep the stars in pretty good focus and still keep the foreground sharp. Of course, you may be peeing into the wind anyway using trees for your foreground since they'll move in the breeze. The intervalometers are relatively inexpensive and a great gadget to have. All in a all, a very nice shot.

-joel

Thanks, Joel!

If I remember right (this was the weekend after Toro, so it's been quite some time since I took it!), there wasn't much of a breeze to catch the trees, but at 3 minutes any little movement will show.

Next times, I'll give f4 or 4.5 a try while focused on the foreground. One of my first attempts was with my nifty fifty (I know, not a wide angle) focused on the forground at 1.8... turned out generally awful. I'm not sure where I was going with that... I guess I just wanted to share

An intervolameter is on my wish list, but there's already a long list of things that will make my photographic life much easier to get first.

amazingPicsCo

Wow, excellent!